Wearing apparel



Oct 25, 1966 G. PANKEY ET Ax. 3,280,818

WEARING APPAREL Filed Aug. 20, 1964 3,280,818 WEARING APPAREL Garnett L. Pankey, La Mesa, and Thomas F. Crawley, Woodland Hills, Calif., assignors to Solette Co., San Diego, Calif., a partnership Filed Aug. 20, 1964, Ser. No. 390,849 8 Claims. (Cl. 12S-50S) The present invention relates generally to articles of wearing apparel, and more especially t brassieres and to other articles of apparel having a built-in brassiere of the strapless type. The present invention may be embodied, for example, in a swimsuit which may be regarded as an outer garment of apparel; but it will become evident from the subsequent description that the present invention may be equally well incorporated in an undergarment and, accordingly, the precise nature of the wearing apparel is not limitative upon the scope or use of the invention.

Various types of brassieres or breast covers have been proposed which include adhesive as a means for attaching the article to the wearer, thus enabling the article to be worn without the usual straps. Even without the supporing straps, articles of this type can, by proper design, be so constructed that they perform adequately the desired cover and support functions desired from garments of this type. However, all such garments known to applicants suifer greatly from the fact that they are inherently shortlived because of the deterioration of the adhesive which is an integral part `of the article.

Adhesives used are commonly of the pressure sensitive type similar to that employed upon the familiar adhesive tape or bandage. Such adhesive causes the article to be attached rmly to the skin of the wearer; but after a single use, the adhesive qualities of the adhesive layer are greatly diminished. It is well known from using the familiar adhesive bandage that when the bandage is once removed, it can be re-adhered to the skin but the strength of adhesion is reduced greatly, perhaps as much as onehalf or even more. Subsequent removal and replacement causes the strength of adhesion to decrease still further. This characteristic of the adhesive incorporated in a known manner in a brassiere or breast cover severely limits the useful life of the article since after one or two wearings, the article can no longer be rmly and securely fastened to the body of the wearer.

It has been proposed to solve this problem by reactivating the adhesive. This involves moistening the adhesive with a specially prepared reagent. From a practical standpoint, this is not always satisfactory since the reagent may not be properly applied, may cause skin irritation if improperly applied, or is not at hand when one desires to use it. Also, reuse of adhesive materials in direct contact with the skin is often unsanitary.

Further, pressure sensitive adhesives create manufacturing problems because standard means of attachment of cover fabrics, as by sewing or bonding, are not practical within the area of a garment covered by pressure sensitive adhesive.

Another shortcoming of the adhesive is that it is subject to more rapid deterioration when in contact with moisture and in particular chlorinated water, salt water, and Water containing soaps and detergents for cleaning purposes. A garment with such an adhesive cannot be washed or dry cleaned without destroying the adhesive. For this reason, adhesive heretofore has not been considered for use with bathing suits or swimwear.

The short useful life of the adhesive, for any of the above reasons, when incorporated as an integral part of an article of wearing apparel has made it uneconomical to utilize this means of fastening in connection with articles of outerwear, for example, swimsuits or sunsuits,

Patented Oct. 25, 1966 TFPice because such articles are inherently comparatively expensive and the average person cannot afford to buy them and wear them only once or twice.

Hence it becomes a general object of the present invention to design an article of Wearing apparel covering the breasts of the ywearer and also providing a desired degree of support therefor, which article of wearing apparel embodies a novel construction including an adhesive for attaching the article to the body of the wearer.

More especially, it is an object of the present invention to design for a swimsuit or sunsuit or other outer garment a portion of the garment resembling a brassiere or breast cover which is attached to the body of the wearer without the conventional straps and which has an eXended useful life much greater than possible with similar articles of known constructions.

It is also an object of the present invention to provide a novel construction for an article of wearing apparel which enables the use of a pressure sensitive adhesive for attaching the article to the body of the wearer and which provides means for replacing the pressure sensitive adhesive used for such attachment, thereby enabling the article itself to be cleaned without injury and to be reused many times without causing the wearer to have an uneasy feeling of insecurity.

These objects of the present invention have been achieved by embodying in an article of wearing apparel a relatively permanent or reusable fabric panel adapted to receive and support a breast of the wearer; a generally arcuate cloth strip conforming in outline to a portion of said panel and separable therefrom; a layer of pressure sensitive adhesive covering one face of the cloth strip to attach the strip to the body of the wearer; a removable protective covering over the pressure sensitive adhesive layer; and releasable means for securing the cloth strip to a marginal portion of the panel, the releasable means being of a positive and mechanical nature as opposed to an adhesive and consequently being reusable many times since it is unaffected by reuse and contact with moisture.

The releasable securing means may take any one of several forms, or a combination of such forms. A preferred material is a body of a fabric having a plurality of stiff, resilient hooks of a synthetic fiber which can be. embedded in and engage an opposing fabric to fasten the cloth strip to the fabric panel. It is also possible to use metallic fasteners such as hooks or snaps; and a combination of hooks or snaps with the fabric having the stiff resilient hooks may also be used advantageously.

How the above objects and advantages of the present invention are attained will be more readily understood by reference to the following description and to the annexed drawing, in which:

FIG. l is a front quarter view of a wearer showing articles embodying the present invention being worn.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged front elevation of an article adapted to cover one breast of a wearer, the one illustrated being the one for the left-hand side.

FIG. 3 is a rear elevation of the article.

FIG. 4 is -a rear elevation of the detachable cloth mounting strip.

FIG. 5 is a rear elevation of the fabric panel for su-pporting the breast.

IFIG. 6 is a vertical transverse section on line 6 6 of FIG. 2.

FIG. 7 is an enlarged transverse section through the 1,mounting strip on-ly on line 7-7 of FIG. 4.

FIG. 8 is a section similar to FIG. 6 showing a modilied form of the article.

Referring now to the drawing, FIG. 1 shows how the articles appear when worn. Each article 10 is desig-ned as a separate member for application to one breast only since, as will become evident from the description, it is more practical and economical to make the articles as separate units although, within the scope of the invention, they could be lconnected together in pairs in the manner of the conventional styile of b-r-assiere.

A separate article 1t) is shown in front and rear elevations in FIGS. 2 and 3. Each -article comprises a reusable fabric panel 12, s-hown separately in FIG. 5, and a disposable cloth strip 14 (FIG. 4) by lmeans of which the article is atached to the body of the wearer. Panel 12 constitutes the base 0r foundation element upon which the entire article is constructed. It may be regarded yas a permanent portion of the combination since it is reusable more or less indefinitely. Panel 12 comprises an arcuate marginal strip portion 15 which is firm and comparatively -non-stretchable i-n order to retain its general shape; but at the same time the strip is sufficiently flexible to conform to the body of the wearer. Marginal strip 15 is more or less uniform in Width throughout its length, although it is not necessarily symmetrical since articles are designed to be furnished in pairs, each pair having a right-h-and and a left-hand member. Strip may be described as generally arcuate or even semi-circular, although it is not necessarily of -uniform radius, but it does have Ian angular extent of approximately half a circle.

Att-ached at the inner concave edge 15a of marginal strip 15 and extending across the con-cave side of the strip is a breast-engaging and supporting portion 16 of the panel which is hereinafter referred to as the central portion. This central portion 16 is preferably made of net or other foraminous fabric when the garment is designed to be used as swimwear in order that water Im-ay freely drain out of the pocket formed by the garment. Otherwise, central portion 16 may be made of any rm but flexible cloth, preferably a nylon or other synthetic ber that is firm and Adoes not absorb moisture. The net portion 16 may be covered with a Iliner for comfort, if desired, but such liner is not shown in the drawing in order to simplify the illustration.

In the drawing, the central breast-engaging and supporting portion 16 of panel 12 is shown as conforming substantially to the concave edge 15a of marginal strip '15 where the two are joined by stitching 17. The net portion 16 may also be extended to the outer convex edge 15b to cover the marginal strip, in which case stitching is also done along the convex edge.

On the outside, panel 12 is lcovered with an exterior covering layer of cloth 18 which may be any soft, decorative cloth desired. Outer covering 18 can be sewn directly to marginal strip 15 along both the inner concave and outer convex edges and is coterminous with the strip -arou-nd the outer edges thereof. While the outer covering may be also fastened to the central net portion 16 along the upper edge of the garment, it is preferred that the outer covering be left free from the central net portion, as shown in FIG. 6. This construction not only allows the exterior cove-ring 18 to rise above the upper edge of the breast-engaging portion 16 in order to extend to the upper half of `the breast ybut makes it possible t0 insert padding 19 between the outer covering and the net 16, if -desired for cosmetic reasons, as shown in FIG. 6. If the article is Worn .as an undergarment, the exterior -covering may be omitted.

Cloth strip 14 which serves as part of the means for attaching the garment to the Wearers body is separable from panel 12 described above. Cloth strip 14 is essentially a small, inexpensive element of the entire combination which may be regarded as disposable as it may be discarded after each use, yalthough it may be used more than once. Obviously, after discarding one strip 14, it is replaced with .another one; and accordingly a plurality of strips 14 are supplied with each panel 12.

Attachment strip 14 is generally `arcuate and more or less of uniform width throughout its length. It is sized to overlie the skin of the wearer laterally beyond the breast and is suiciently exible to conform to the body. In shape, it is preferably congruent with the marginal portion 15 of the fabric panel since, as will be explained, the two major portions of the garment are designed to be connected together over opposing faces of attaching strip 14 and marginal strip 15. Strip 14 may also be regarded as bei-ng generally semi-circular in shape since it is designed to extend around approximately the lower half of the breast.

Turni-ng now to FIG. 7, it will be seen that the attachment strip 14 is of laminated construction. On its forward fa-ce, it comprises a cloth backing strip 20 which preferabily has pile on its exposed face. The rear face of backing strip 20 is covered with a layer 21 of pressure sensitive adhesive of Iany suitable composition which will adhere to the skin of the wearer with suicient strength to keep the article in place and yet be removable. In order to protect the pressure sensitive adhesive until such time as it is to be put in use, the layer of adhesive is covered with a removable protective cover layer 22. This protective cover is peeled off of the pressure sensitive adhesive in order to expose the latter to make ready for attachment to the wearers body.

Releasable means are provided for securing the attachment strip 14 to marginal portion 15 of the base panel. Suc-h means may take various forms; but preferably ones that are -reusable and do not deteriorate either with reuse or with exposure to wa-ter. One such means that is highly effective is to cover the exposed face of marginal strip 15 with a body of fabric having a plurality of stiff, resilient hooks of a synthetic fiber, typically nylon fiber. When the pile face of mounting stripy 14 is pressed into engagement with the plurality of nylon hooks in the marginal area 15, the base panel firmly adheres to the mounting strip and is securely attached through the mounting strip to the wearer. The base panel can then be removed from the mounting strip by what may be described as a relative peeling movement. That is, the panel 12 is pulled away from the mounting strip at one corner of the garment and is then peeled back from the mounting strip in essentially the same way that the protective laye-r 22 is peeled off of the layer 21 of pressure sensitive adhesive. While these two components of the releasable securing means can be separated in lthis fashion, the large number of fabric hooks engaging loops in the pile surface of the mounting strip rmly resist any tendency to be separated by body movements of the wearer, largely because such body movements tend to impose only shear stresses on the separable portions of the garment and the releasable fastening means described is particularly strong in shear.

This type of releasable fastening means is an article of commerce and forms of its are described more fully in U.S. Patent No. 2,717,437 issued September 13, 1955, and U.S. Patent No. 3,009,235 issued November 21, 1961, to which reference may be made for additional details.

Another type of releasable fastening means which may be employed within the s-cope of the present invention is any one of various types of separable fasteners of metals, plastic, or the like. Examples of such fasteners are the familiar hooland-eye fasteners long used on clothing, and snap-type fasteners of types widely in the clothing industry. All 4of these various fasteners are characterized by two members which are frict-ionally or otherwise yieldingly engageable with each other and which are separable, one member being attached to each of the two components of the garment which are to be connected together, namely, the base panel 12 and attachment strip 14. Buttons may be used too. However, all these last-mentioned fasteners require reasonably p-recise registration of the panel 12 with the attaching strip 14; and .it -is not easy to apply the attaching strip to ones b-ody -in an exact shape. The advantage of the fabric hooks and pile loops is that full strength engagement is achieved quickly and easily over a wide range of relative positions of the two engaging'elements. l

At times, it may be desire-d to employ combinations of these different `types of fasteners. For example, in order to resist airy initial tendency of the fabric with the re- -"s`ilient hbokrs of a "synthetic liber to pull .apart from the plie layerZQ, arsepa-rabl'e `rhetal fastener may be employed tfei'ach of the two opposite upper corners of the garment l:as at 2,5 in FIG. to provide additional securing force between the two components 12 and 14.

Attaching the central portion 16 of panel 12 to the marginal portion along the |inner edge 15a of (the marginal portion is `also very helpful in preventing the panel from peeling oif the attaching strip. The .described construction transmits stresses to the `attachment in shear which is Well resisted and does not sepanate the panel and the mounting strip.

The described construction eliminates adhesive in all areas where sewing is to be done. This is a great advanta-ge from the manufacturing or production standpoint, as sewing is a preferred means of assembly but cannot be accomplished easily in an area covered with adhesive. It is preferred to use nyl-on thread since nylon is hydrophobic and does not absorb water; and nylon or other synthetic fibers are used as extensively as possible in a swimsuit.

FIG. `8 illustrates in section a modified form of the article which is made as described above except for the addition of a formed brassiere cup 27. This may be used in addition to padding 19 as shown or in lieu thereof. The cup 27 is placed between the exterior covering 18 and the suppont element 16 and is sewn to the marginal strip 15 at the same location as the stitching along edges 15a and 15b. On t-he other hand, the construction of FIG. 8 but without the exterior cover 18 is suitable for a selfsup porting or strapless brassiere for day or evening wear.

From this it is evident that one advantage of the present invention is that an attaching strip 14 may be left in place while the wearer replaces a reusable part of the garment by another, as when changing from a swimsuit to a strapless evening gown.

=It will be apparent that various changes in the exact shape and design of the garment and the details of its construction may be made by persons skilled in t-he art without departing from the spiri-t and scope of the present invention. Accordingly, it is to be understood that the foregoing description is considered to be illustrative of, rather than limitative upon, the invention as defined by the appended claims.

We claim:

1. An article -o-f wearing apparel comprising:

a fabric panel adapted to receive and support a breast of the wearer;

a generally arcuate cloth strip conforming in outline to only a portion of said panel and shaped to extend bey-ond the breast at one side of the wearer;

la layer of pressure sensitive adhesive cover-ing one face of the cloth strip to attach ythe cloth strip to the wearer;

a removable protective covering over the pressure sensitive adhesive layer;

and releasable means for securing the cloth strip t-o a portion of the panel, said securing means being reusable and substantially unaffected by reuse and contact w-ith moisture,

said releasable securing means comprising a first set of mechanical fastening elements on the strip and a second set of mechanical fastening elements on the panels,

said two sets of fastening elements being mutually engageable in interlocking relation to secure the panel to the strip and resisting separation by shear forces applied to the elements but being separable by a peeling movement of the panel relative to the strip.

2. An article of wearing apparel according to claim '1 in which the releasable securing means includes a body of fabric material having a plurality of stil, re-

silient hooks of a synthetic liber;

and a mating l-ayer of pile fabric engageable wi-th said hooks to hold the cloth strip and `the panel together.

3. An article of wearing apparel according to claim 2 in which the pile fabric and the hooks can be separated by a relative peeling movement, and which includes anchor means disposed on the panel at a position to prevent said peeling movement from starting.

4. An article of wearing apparel according to claim 1 in which the panel comprises a normally flat, rm, flexible marginal portion of generally semi-circular shape conforming substantially to said cloth strip.

and a central foraminous portion of flexible material, the panel being made essentially of a hydrophobic synthetic material.

5. An article of wearing apparel according to claim 1 which also includes a formed breast cup outwardly of and attached at its margin to the fabric panel.

6. An article of wearing apparel comprising:

a fabric panel adapted to receive and support a breast of the wearer;

said panel comprising a normally flat, flexible marginal portion of generally semi-circular shape and a central formaminous portion attached to and stretching across the concave side of the marginal portion,

said marginal portion including a body of fabric having a plurality of stiff, resilient hooks of a synthetic liber;

a generally semi-circular cloth strip conforming in size and shape to the marginal portion of the panel and having on one face a pile fabric engageable with said hooks Ion the panel to releasably secure the cloth strip to the panel, the strip an-d panel being separable -by a relative peeling movement;

a layer of pressure sensitive adhesive covering the opposite face of the cloth strip;

and a removable protective covering over the pressure sensitive adhesive and removable to expose the adhesive for contact with the body of the wearer laterally beyond the breast of the wearer.

7. An article of wearing apparel, comprising:

at least one fabric panel adapted to cover a part of the body of the wearer;

said panel comprising an initially flat, flexible marginal portion of generally arcuate shape and a central fabric portion attached to and extending across the concave edge of the marginal portion;

said marginal portion including at the inner surface thereof a plurality of mechanical fastening members;

a cloth strip having on one face a layer of pressure sensitive adhesive for attaching the strip to the body of the wearer and having on the opposite face a plurality of fastening members engageable with the fastening members on the marginal port-ion of the panel in interlocking relation to releasably secure the panel to the strip,

said strip and panel `being separable by relative peeling movement that disengages the interlocked fastening members;

and a removable protective covering over the pressure sensitive adhesive and removable to expose the adhesive for contact with the body yof the wearer.

8. The combination comprising:

an article to be worn by being releasably secured to the skin of a human body to cover a portion thereof;

a rst mechanical securing means at one surface of the article;

a thin, initially flat, flexible base member adapted to conform to an area on the wearers body and conforming in outline to .at least a portion of the outline of the article;

a layer of pressure sensitive adhesive covering one surface yof sa-id base member for adhesively fastening the base member to said area on the wearers body;

a second mechanical securing means on the base member at the opposite face thereof;

Ione of said mechanical securing means comprising a rst multiplicity of closely spaced, hook-like elements and the other of said mechanical securing means comprising a second multiplicity of closely spaced elements interlocking with the hoololike elements in any one of numerous selected relative positions of the article relative to the base member to releasably secure the article to the base member, whereby the lit of the article to the body can be adjusted independently of the base member;

and said interlocked elements resist-ing separation by lshear forces applied thereto but said elements being separable with relative ease .by a peeling motion of,

the article relative to the lbase member;

and a removable protective covering over the pressure .sensitive adhesive and removable lto expose the adhesive for contact with the body of the wearer.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS ADELE M. EAGER, Primary Examiner. 

1. AN ARTICLE OF WEARING APPAREL COMPRISING A FABRIC PANEL ADAPTED TO RECEIVE AND SUPPORT A BREAST OF THE WEARER; A GENERALLY ARCUATE CLOTH STRIP CONFORMING IN OUTLINE TO ONLY A PORTION OF SAID PANEL AND SHAPED TO EXTEND BEYOND THE BREAST AT ONE SIDE OF THE WEARER; A LAYER OF PRESSURE SENSITIVE ADHESIVE COVERING ONE FACE OF THE CLOTH STRIP TO ATTACH THE CLOTH STRIP TO THE WEARER; A REMOVABLE PROTECTIVE COVERING OVER THE PRESSURE SENSITIVE ADHESIVE LAYER; AND RELEASABLE MEANS FOR SECURING THE CLOTH STRIP TO PORTION OF THE PANEL, SAID SECURING MEANS BEING REUSABLE AND SUBSTANTIALLY UNAFFECTED BY REUSE AND CONTACT WITH MOISTURE, SAID RELEASABLE SECURING MEANS COMPRISING A FIRST SET OF MECHANICAL FASTENING ELEMENTS ON THE STRIP AND A SECOND SET OF MECHANICAL FASTENING ELEMENTS ON THE PANELS, SAID TWO SETS OF FASTENING ELEMENTS BEING MUTUALLY ENGAGEABLE IN INTERLOCKING RELATION TO SECURE THE PANEL TO THE STRIP AND RESISTING SEPARATION BY SHEAR FORCES APPLIED TO THE ELEMENTS BUT BEING SEPARABLE BY A PEELING MOVEMENT OF THE PANEL RELATIVE TO THE STRIP. 